I've been thinking about starting this thread for several days, but I did not want it to get lost in the Cotto/Margo pre-fight build up or post fight aftermath. When the Pavlik/Hopkins fight was announced I was very surprised. I did NOT see this one coming. At first I thought it was a terrible idea. After a review of the facts I decided maybe it's not so bad considering the options. Point #1: Abraham is busy with a mandatory. Calzaghe won't fight. Kessler is already committed to another fight. HBO would not even consider Rubio. Mora would get permanently mangled. Paul Williams talked a lot of smack, but ultimately turned down $1.2 million. Winky turned down $1.3 million plus a cut of the ppv revenues. Bernard Hopkins is the best available opponent with whom Top Rank could actually strike a deal. Point #2: Bhop is still rated #2 at 175 by ring magazine. If any middleweight champ moves up and beats the number 2 light heavyweight, that's a pretty big deal. Point #3: Hopkins is #4 on Ring Magazines p4p list. Pavlik is #7. This fight actually gives Pavlik a chance to move up the food chain. Point #4: Pavlik's next fight after BHop will most likely be either Abraham or Calzaghe. Neither of those fights could be made before January of next year. Pavlik needed an opponent for this fall. He absolutely should not fight AA or Calzaghe immediately after 7 or 8 months of inactivity, and like I said, BHop was the best available opponent. Point #5: Pavlik has 34 fights, but they only add up to 127 rounds of boxing with a per fight average of 3.75 rounds per fight. At age 26 he is still very much in the learning curve. Studying tape, sparring, and so forth will only take a fighter so far. There is absolutely nothing that can ever take the place of actual boxing experience against world class opposition. Win, lose, or draw Hopkins will provide Pavlik with one hell of a learning opportunity. It's difficult to predict how people will interpret a Pavlik win. In my opinion it would be a big accomplishment. If BHop wins this, he can leave the sport a winner on the heels of a great victory over a very dangerous p4p opponent. At 43 it would most certainly solidify his status as a boxing legend.
If Hopkins beats Pavlik hes top ten if not atleast top 20 p4p goat.. that being said I cant credit Pavlik too much if he beats Hopkins.. in fact it would make me sad to see BHop get kod but BHop aint no fool .. im sure he will watch tapes of Pavlik and formulate a plan.. I just feel like im gonna not enjoy the second half of the fight too much =/... my heart is with the old guy
Yes Hopkins will formulate a plan, but Hopkins runs out of gas pretty quick these days. formulating a plan, and implenting it are two different matters
Not because . . . we all know that it's gonna be boring. Bhops will try to win the fight by points . . . round by round. Second Pavlik is a middle weight and it might do him harm than good in going up to the higher weight then go back down again to depend his middle weight title. Bhops is past his prime . . . beaten by Taylor 2X and by JC . . . what will Pavlik earn in beating him? High risk NO reward fight.
Booradley on Pavlik v Hopkins: Booradley on Calzaghe v Hopkins: I've been looking forward to the Hopkins revisionism starting from the PavlikNation. Suddenly the guy who was too old to be a credible opponent for the 36 year old Calzaghe will suddenly become a dangerous experienced oppenent still worthy of being mentioned in the P4P top ten for the 26 year old Pavlik. All so predictable.
Completely different situation. This fight is on because Calzaghe DUCKED Pavlik. BHop, unlike slappy joe, is willing to fight. Calzaghe chose BHop over Pavlik, and then chose Jones over Pavlik. He made BOTH tose choices AFTER calling Pavlik out. Big difference!
Pavlik KO's the old man. Its a bad move for Bhop, just like we seen last weekend. Pavlik will walk him down, take his shots and eventully be too much for Hopkins. Pavlik is just a bigger stronger version of Margo. Maybe this one will finally make Hopkins retire and do something else.
Even if that were true, I don't see how that makes any difference at all to how a win for Pavlik over Hopkins should be viewed. Unless Hopkins suddenly became a better fighter and younger in your opinion simply by signing to fight Pavlik.
This content is protected ?: Because it's a Best of yesterday vs. best of now Middleweight (Torch pass) (Contested at a catch weight) This content is protected This content is protected ?: Because Hopkins is going to win.
Pavlik will win as long as he doesnt get frustrated by Hops defense and lateral movement and if he throws a lot of jabs and not just jabs but jabs that land..
I layed out five reasons why this fight is okay under the circumstances. You have not answered a single one of my points. I did not rate BHop as the #2 LHW in the world. Ring magazine did. I did not put Hopkins at #4 on the p4p list. Ring magazine did. I did not beat Tarver and Wright, and then drop a controversial split decision to Calzaghe. Hopkins did. If you can't answer my points in some meaningful fashion, go start a "Let's Hate on Pavlik" thread, and stay off this one.
No way does Pavlik have the duriblity of Margo. Athough the result could be the same due to Hopkins not hitting hard enough to discourage.
How ring magazine rank Hopkins really means **** to how people are going to react to a Pavlik win. You should know this having been around here. If Joe got little credit for beating an old guy coming off good wins, Pavlik is going to have to do something awfully special to get any credit for beating the old guy coming off a loss. However, if he beats him too easily (unlikely) questions will be asked even further as to Hopkins condition. The only way I can see him getting much credit is if he wins a really tough fight, and even then it will be praise in moderation. It's mostly no win, but he'll get credit from me though. it will be his best win.
One article Arum claimed he caved and gave him the $1.5 he wanted and was surprised when it fell through after that.